Marvin Olasky offers two cheers for John Calvin on the Reformer's 500th birthday. Religion: According to Harry Potter
One of Yale University’s newest divinity courses is using the Harry Potter series to examine Christian themes like sin, evil, and resurrection.
“It was a struggle for me as I put the class together, because I knew if I didn’t construct this really well … that a lot of what I was doing would be missed or misconstrued. I certainly didn’t want to come across as someone trying to indoctrinate my students,” [said instructor Danielle Tumminio.] “I also wanted to make it clear that it was a critical endeavor, and that it wasn’t … that you’d sit around all day talking about how great Luna Lovegood was.”
While some embrace the argument that the Potter series contains a Christian allegory, others fall into the camp of resisting “any attempt to ‘Christianize’ Harry Potter.” What’s your take: Is there value in studying the Potter books from a theological perspective, or is it best to leave it in the fictional literature department?
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The course is called: “Christian Theology and Harry Potter.”
Coming soon: “Advanced Criminology and the Hardy Boys.”
Leave it to Yale to charge gobs of money to have their students sitting around readig Harry Potter books. It takes an advanced education to think that up.
Worse, leave it to Yale to take total fantasy on its face and call it a course on “Christian theology.”
I won’t hold my breath for the course; “Global Warming and the Campaign of Chicken Little.”
This idea smacks of intellectual dishonesty to me, let alone intellectual laziness.
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I admit it. I finally gave in and read Harry Potter. When my children were younger, it was something we decided to stay away from. There are enough good books out there, we don’t have to read these. It’s a family joke, “When you turn 18 read the Harry Potter books.” I enjoyed Rowlings use of words. There were a few lines I re-read to savor the turn of a phrase. I still love the line about the candles in the pumpkins stuttering!
This was the first non-Christian book I’ve read in several years. I was shocked at non-Christian attitudes and actions, mainly those directed at other people. Only the bad guys talk that way in my books or at least whoever said it feels bad and apologizes by the end of the book. Our family has been talking about the situational ethics of the book — the end always justifies the means. It would be interesting to do a study of how far away the books are from the teachings of Christ.
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As books for children/young adults go, I think that the themes of good vs. evil, love vs. fear/hate, and redemption vs. extreme self-centredness are some of the pluses of the Harry Potter stories. I also enjoyed watching Harry and some of the other characters grow up between the first book and the seventh. The situational ethics (the end justifies the means, it’s okay to break rules if it helps my friends, etc.) are one of the reasons I don’t readily recommend the books to others.
Is there value in studying HP from a theological perspective? Sure, as there is value in thinking critically, and from a theological (i.e., “God-studying”) perspective, about everything I read. Isn’t that part of what it means to live life with a Christian worldview?
I guess I could see using HP as part of a college course studying popular fiction, children’s literature, the fantasy genre, redemptive themes in contemporary literature, etc. But I’m not sure HP really belongs in a classroom as the centrepiece of a course.
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This is probably a good idea. In recent years, the old-fashioned way of delivering the Christian message has been too boring. Not enough descriptions of action sequences in the traditional scriptures. And even the action that IS described in the Bible has WAY too much preaching (and interminable stuff about living morally and consequences and ho-hum stuff like that) in between the too-few and way under-dramatized action scences.
Just plain not enough special effects, at least for the discriminating modern mind. Nothing spectacularly blowing up or anything (well here and there like Sodom and Gomorrah in the OT but even there it has all this moral baggage thrown in that a good modern director or writer would realize needs to be cut in a heartbeat before release.)
I mean – just think if Spielberg had been in charge of the script for the Gospels, instead of the old plodding Matthew, Mark, Luke and . . . that other guy, whatever his name was.
Instead of a wimpy Garden scene where Peter half-heartedly cuts off the ear of the soldier and then Jesus meekly surrenders, there could have been a thrilling fight scene with thousands of extras, and Jesus and Judas engaged in a stunning sword fight upon the walls of the ancient city of Jerusalem, maybe with some aliens and cowboys and Indians popping in, as accidentally (but somehow relevantly) injected through an ancient sinister ‘Stargate’ type of device embedded in the foundations of the city.
So this is probably a good idea; to reintroduce and retool the Christian message – here specifically as found in a modern movie (taken itself from a book written by an author overtly hostile to Christianity, at least Biblical Christianity) sympathetic to and centrally built around a coven of witchs and wizards who fly through the air using the powers of darkness, who profess no allegiance to Christ or God, but instead to magical powers; a movie whose central theme (I have been told) is the seeking of personal (magical) power, rather than the rejection of power.
That beats the old approach, hands down.
Now don’t get me wrong. I understand and recognize Christian themes in literature and movies, even those not overtly ABOUT Christ. Recent movies like LOTR and Narnia come to mind.
But – Harry Potter?
How about Power Rangers or An American Werewolf in London? Or the Smurfs?
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I haven’t yet succumbed to Potter-mania. I read the first book, found it ok but nothing to get overly excited about, and never read any of the follow-ups. I have seen each of the movies, one time each.
I have been reading a book by Catholic scholar Peter Kreeft on the underlying Christian themes in the The Lord of the Rings, though, and finding it quite interesting.
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Drill: As one who sees spiritual and moral themes in The Shield and Sex and the City, I think your criticism is amusingly stated but misplaced.
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Steveg: Well you have me flummoxed on The Shield and Sex and the City. I have never seen them; however perhaps if those engaged in the activity implied by title of the second movie used the precaution suggested by the title of the first movie, there would be far less abortions and illegitimate births in our cities.
I don’t know a great deal about modern culture and don’t exactly frequent video stores; when I am occassionally dragged into one by an overeager member of a younger generation, I tend to be No Fun At All.
All the movies I see on the shelves seem to be about sex or stabbing people or blowing things up or cartoon characters with their belly buttons and underwear showing, or some combination of those basic types. Occasionally you might see one or two movies which seem to be aimed at a more cerebral and thoughtful audience, although in my experience even those end up with women in high-heels whacking each other over the heads with their pocketbooks, and nonsense like that.
I don’t have television and I don’t listen to the radio. I just read, mainly. However, I have not read Harry Potter so I probably should not make huge sweeping statements about it. But not making huge sweeping statements goes against my nature, whether or not I know much about whatever it is I am making huge sweeping statements about.
I am sure you would agree. Anyway, the reason I have not read Harry Potter is because everybody tells me I absolutely should. So I don’t.
Incidentally, I am also the only person left on the planet Earth who has never seen the movie ‘ET’.
Several years ago it was rumored that there was a member of an undiscovered Stone Age tribe living in New Guinea who had not seen it either, but that has since been proven to be false. He apparently managed to get it on his flat-screen satellite TV which is mounted in his hut (beside the shrine made out of the skulls of his enemies).
So I am the last holdout.
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drill – “Instead of a wimpy Garden scene where Peter half-heartedly cuts off the ear of the soldier and then Jesus meekly surrenders, there could have been a thrilling fight scene with thousands of extras, and Jesus and Judas engaged in a stunning sword fight upon the walls of the ancient city of Jerusalem”.
Jesus: You are wonderful.
Judas: Thank you; I’ve worked hard to become so.
Jesus: I admit it, you are better than I am.
Judas: Then why are you smiling?
Jesus: Because I know something you don’t know.
Judas: And what is that?
Jesus: I… am not left-handed.
[Moves his sword to his right hand and gains an advantage]
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Actually, Drill, my friend Robyn has steadily resisted all encouragement to see ET for the same reason, so there are two of you on the planet.
I’d like to know why Harry always gets away with breaking the rules–or is that grace?
I don’t think Harry Potter books are Christian, but they do share some universal themes which are similar to the Christian canon: loving your neighbor as yourself (as long as it’s Hermione and Ron and Sirius and several others), sacrificing yourself for the good of all (even if, yet again, grace triumphs and you’re allowed back to life), the overwhelming love of a parent for a child and hard work does provide its own rewards (Hermione is my favorite character).
I don’t think it’s worth an entire quarter of college instruction, but I’m not the one paying Yale tuition . . .
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I guess it depends what the goal is of students taking classes in the divinity department. If it is simply to understand the themes of sin, evil, and resurrection, an entire course dealing with Harry Potter books does not seem reasonable. They would be worth a mention, perhaps a few lecture and discussion periods, but not more.
On the other hand, if these divinity students are planning to become pastors, chaplains, etc. and will be trying to convey these theological ideas to other people in the course of their future ministry, it could be very worthwhile to discuss how these themes show up in the books and movies that are so popular among so many people. How is evil portrayed in HP, how is it the same as sin in traditition Christian thinking and how is it different? When people without a church background hear words like sin and redemption, what do they think of? How much can you use the ideas and words that people already are familiar with, and how much do you need to clarify the definition to be sure they’re hearing the same thing you’re saying?
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All truth is God’s truth, (although not everything purporting to be true is true and from God.) If God has made Himself known to us so that we are without excuse, (Romans 2) and placed eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes) it should not surprise us to see themes of sin and redemption, sacrifical love, overcoming great obstacles, and confronting a great evil who holds a pesonal animus toward us while sharing an ancient if mysterious connection, to thrill us when we encounter them in fiction that is not conciously or explicitly Christian.
I read the first several Harry Potter books because my son was reading them and I wanted to be able to provide some disernment, especially given the themes of wizardry and witchcraft.
I enjoyed the word play (eg. the magican’s shopping area on Diagon Alley) sprinkled unobtrusively throughout the books. I also saw where scenes like Hagrid’s first encounter with Harry Potter where Harry learns his true identity resonate with our new identity in Christ, complete with new found power than we need to grow into, and a mortal enemy intent on our demise.
To the extent that any fiction rings true in its conflicts and characters, a general revelation of God and man can be found and explored. That the story of Harry Potter’s coming of age should be prematurely exalted to the level of the classic literature that has informed and inspired Western Civilization may betray the weakness of contemporary academics too adrift in a sea of identity politics and reflexive antiwestern attitudes to engage the great moral issues we face with a concerted civilized view.
In short, it’s perfectly alright to enjoy the Harry Potter canon, and even draw some good and useful parallels from within them, but let your life and learning go way beyond its limitations.
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Drill at #7: Steveg: Well you have me flummoxed on The Shield and Sex and the City. I have never seen them; however perhaps if those engaged in the activity implied by title of the second movie used the precaution suggested by the title of the first movie, there would be far less abortions and illegitimate births in our cities.
I’m glad you asked. OK, you didn’t exactly ask, but I’m going to tell you anyway, because I think it’s interesting and raises important questions about how spiritually-minded persons can interact with a secular culture.
The Shield is a series on the FX network about four crooked cops led by Vic Mackie (Michael Chiklis.) Every major character in the show is broken in some way or other, some malevolent and some just wounded.
The key spiritual theme one can glean from it is summed up as “your sin will find you out.” As the series has progressed through six seasons (it’s seventh and final one will air sometime this year), the web of lies and treachery these guys have woven in an attempt to cover up their crimes has slowly tightened around them. It culminated at the end of season five when one of the team (Shane, played by Walton Goggins) murdered another (Lem, played by Kenneth Johnson) because Shane mistakenly believed that Lem was about to cut a deal with an internal affairs investigator (Forrest Whitaker) and turn them all in.
In the sixth season, Shane was anguished that he’d killed his friend, and then totally consumed by guilt once he learned he’d been wrong in what he believed. He confessed to Vic –maybe not the smartest move and we’ll find out what happens in Season Seven.
This all serves to illustrate the danger of succumbing to temptation. These guys started small and with good intentions … the first time they cheated the system was to trump up evidence to convict a gang member they knew was guilty but couldn’t make a case on. After that, though, it became easier and easier to cut corners and work deals with the criminals.
There is a secondary theme too, that of ethical choices in the face of need. Mackie has two autistic children needing special care and private school, hard to cover on a cop’s pay. His turn to crime is motivated at least partly by his desire to provide for them. It is a wrong action motivated by a good reason. In seeking to save his life (his children) he loses it (his wife leaves him and takes the children with her.) But by then he’s so enmeshed in the consequences of his bad decisions that there’s no way back without suffering consequence, which he remains unwilling to do.
There is not a redemptive aspect to the show, at least not so far … I would not pretend it is a “Christian” show in any overt way, but it is a powerful demonstration of the power of sin to overtake a good man.
I will address Sex and the City in a separate post.
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There were a number of Potter themes (good vs evil, redemption, sin, dealing with corrupt authority) that Rowling tackled from a non-Christian – somewhat worldly – perspective. A very large percentage of the college aged population grew up on the books and are very familiar with them.
A well crafted course that contrasted the Christian view of the matters with the worldly/Rowling view might well have merit.
Or it could be an easy course that one would only take for puffing up the GPA (or to offset a semester with too many tough, high workload classes).
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Sex and the City was an HBO series about four single, sexually active women in Manhattan. Ha, you say. What moral or spiritual themes can you possibly detect in such a thing?
I shall tell you!
As with The Shield, the most significant one is apparent only from the viewpoint of the series as a whole. You probably won’t see it in an isolated episode or even a season, but it’s clear when you look all six seasons in sum.
And it is, perhaps surprisingly, the triumph of marriage and love over singleness and open sexuality. The girls certainly have plenty of fun over the run of the series and each has a long list of lovers. But by the end of the series (and I hope they don’t subvert this when the big-screen follow-up comes out later this year) they have each come to a far more stable place.
I will describe each major character’s arc.
Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) begins the show as a cynic. She’s a lawyer, successful in career but not in love, so she has lots of sex and doesn’t let anyone get close. But Steve (David Eigenberg) wants to get close.
They are a study in opposites. She’s an educated, successful career woman, keeps an eye on the clock always, has her routines and disciplines and is not comfortable deviating from them. He’s a plainspoken bartender, works nights and is a bit of slob. She lives in a nicely appointed apartment, he has a small efficiency apartment with unwashed laundry strewn around.
All through the series, she pushes him away and he keeps trying to be close. He demonstrates real love for her even when she won’t accept it. When she has to have surgery, he drives her home and then refuses to leave when she insists she’s ok. She wakes up the next morning to find him asleep on the floor.
Eventually they have a baby together and for a couple of seasons try to figure out how to be co-parents even though they are not only unmarried but not even a couple. Eventually though, his love for breaks through her defenses and they not only get married but move to Brooklyn so they can afford a real home fit to raise a child in. This is a major growth for her.
Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is the opposite of Miranda in many ways. She’s a romantic, believing that the right man is out there, but convinced the “right” man is handsome and rich. She eventually marries Trey (Kyle MacLachan), a successful surgeon. But it goes bad … he is impotent, has a domineering mother-in-law who takes over their lives, and while he loves her, he’s very limited in the ways he knows to express it.
By the end of the series, she’s married to a pudgy, bald, somewhat crass lawyer. This too is major character growth. She’s learned that real love is far more important than looks or social success.
Samantha (Kim Cattrall), is the most openly sexual of the four. She doesn’t even think about romance or monogamy, she is purely about sex. The one time she tries to be in a committed relationship, it ends because of his infidelities, reinforcing her conviction that there’s no such thing as real love.
Until the final couple of seasons, that is. She gst involved with a much younger man, a waiter-turned-actor, who falls in love with her, forgiving her everything in her past. Like Miranda, she doesn’t believe it at first. But then she gets breast cancer, and he sticks by her every step of the way. There is a touching scene where she is angushed that chemotherapy has taken her hair … so he shaves off his own hair, which had been part of his own outer beauty.
As the series ends, they are not married but very much committed.
Finally, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), is the star of the show. Her life is about her two big loves, Big (Chris Noth, and the name is because he’s a Wall Street big shot, not his anatomy) and Aidan (Jonathan Corbett.) She has other dalliances along the way, but it’s these two that are most prominent.
The story of Aidan is tangled up in the story of Big — Big has gotten married, leaving Carrie heartbroken when she meets and starts seeing Aidan. She has an affair with Big and ends up losing Adian over it, and seemingly losing Big too (there is nothing glamorized in the adultery storyline by the way … everyone involved gets hurt and nobody comes out of it well).
In the final season, she’s taken up with a Russian artist (Mikhail Baryshnikov) and moved to Paris with him … only to be constantly left alone in a strange city as he is always off with friends or business associates. It is Big who comes to get her, having come to his senses. As the series ends, they are not married but moving in that direction.
Again, none of this is explicitly Christian, and Christians who are offended by frank portrayals of sexuality won’t want to see it. But the lessons it holds are ones that I think most Christians would agree with. The girls’ openness to casual encounters seems like a sign of their liberation at first, but it becomes increasingly hollow as the years wear on, and ultimately all of them find greater fulfillment in more traditional lifestyles.
There are other touch points along the way. In one episode, Samantha falls in heavy lust with a priest (Costas Mandaylor). In a lesser show, the priest would have taken off his collar and the res of his clothes and wantonly broken his vows. In this one, he resists and refuses. He patiently explains his vows of poverty and chastity, gently and graciously rejecting both her offer of sex and her offer to use her PR firm to promote a fundraiser. (Chas was lamenting the lack of positive portrayals of the clergy on TV … here is one in a very unlikely place.)
In another episode, after Miranda learns that she’s pregnant by Steve, she considers abortion … and rejects it. And in one bit of dialogue in that episode, we find that Carrie had an abortion 15 or 20 years ago. Miranda asks her, “When did you get over it?” Carrie’s response: “Any day now.” Making a point that women who have abortions may never really get over it.
After Steve and Miranda marry and move to Brooklyn, they take in his elderly mother (Ann Meara), who has Alzheimer’s. This is another big step for Miranda outside of her narrow comfort zones. One day, the mother wanders away from the house. Miranda runs to find her, gently takes her home and gives her a hot bath. It’s a very touching scene, a demonstration of a very real agape love and speaks to the awakening of Miranda’s heart powerfully.
All of this just to say … any fiction that is true to human nature will reflect spiritual truths. Fiction that doesn’t is just bad storytelling.
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What does Ms. Rowling have to say to all this?
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Harry belongs to fiction – not theology.
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Steveg: Well, that is a good bit of information on those TV shows; I had thought they were movies, which shows you exactly where I am with respect to current entertainment.
I would not be able to disagree with you on anything as I don’t know anything about the shows beside what you just told me and the single data point that someone once told me that a show with the name ‘Sex in the City’ was basically soft-porn.
I do think that it is not always useful to try to get spiritual values of any kind out of just anything, especially a work of entertainment when written or produced by people openly hostile to faith. I mean you can say that a stalk of broccoli (spelling?) has spiritual meaning . . . i.e. it is good for you even though it smells funny, some people like it, most hate it, etc. But it is still just broccoli.
Again, I have no reference point on those two shows other than your in-depth analysis here so I am not criticizing them or your opinion of them.
I suspect that you and I would disagree very widely on some aspects of entertainment, agree somewhat on some.
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I don’t know why a Believer would waste their time on a book which further tries to instill evil into the lives of others, especially CHILDREN. There is no entertainment in evil, but it always is alluring, how else would some become tangled in it?
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Victoria,
I, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, “wasted my time” on some of these books as I have children, had children, and dealt with children and this was a big issue to children. I wanted to know how to deal with it. Sometimes there is something to be said for “knowing the enemy”. Anyway, these kids have never expressed any interest at all in things Potter which is somewhat surprising to me as all of our other foster kids (of reading age) had some interest or experience with the books or movies.
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Mumsee
Each person makes their choice as to what their children will read, and what they as adults read. I don’t want anything like it in the house, there are so many other books to read.
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Victoria,
But when children come into the house having already read the books, it is perhaps wise to know what they have read so one can help them deal with it. We do not pretend that the children coming into our lives had no life before.
I had one child that was given the book by her mother to read while she was in foster care. I started the book with her but found she related too well with Harry and his dislike of his “foster” parents. We told her she could read the book when she returned to her mom and told her what the problem was. Her classmates took it upon themselves to print chapters of the book for her at school so she could read them on the bus and such. Not all is as simple as we would wish.
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Mumsee,
Is it a possibility to homeschool your foster children? I think I remember reading that you homeschooled your children before.
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Theselittleones,
We did and once these are officially ours (adopted) we are free to do as we like but as “wards of the State”, the State desires that they get the full benefit of public education. Perhaps it is their view of job security, I don’t know. I did mention to my hubbie that maybe he wants to tone down the homeschool enthusiasm until the adoption is done, perhaps that is why our social worker is having such a tough time getting the paperwork started.
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Honestly, if anyone is interested in taking that course, getting no credit mind you, please simply join ANY Harry Potter FanFiction Website. oh my god. i cannot believe that it is coming down to this. i can name at least 40 people that are my age (19) that know more about Harry Potter than any Professor at Yale. just so that everyone here knows, we pick Harry Potter apart FOR FUN!
To:Danielle Tumminio,
if you ever want some guest speakers, please just post us on LJ or IJ… we would be happy to put your students to shame. we can out think anything/anyone. again please just check some of our posts.
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I still want to know what Ms. Rowling thinks about all this. If I were her, I’d be rolling in my grave. If I were dead, that is…
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Galadriel,
I agree, it would be interesting to hear Ms. Rowling’s comments on this course. But I hardly think she would be upset by it. In an interview after the seventh book was published she acknowledged that she had intended there to be biblical parallels from the beginning, but did not want to make them too obvious to readers.
“To me [the religious parallels have] always been obvious,” she said. “But I never wanted to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going.”
Readers were supposed to wonder if Harry was going to die, and if they saw the biblical parallels they might realize too soon that he was going to die and then be resurrected. Which might spoil the story for people who don’t want to know the ending ahead of time.
Another interesting quote in the article is about the quotes on tombstones. On Harry’s parents’ is “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,” and on Dumbledore’s mother’s and sister’s is “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
“They’re very British books, so on a very practical note Harry was going to find biblical quotations on tombstones,” Rowling explained. “[But] I think those two particular quotations he finds on the tombstones at Godric’s Hollow, they sum up — they almost epitomize the whole series.”
The article is at http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1572107/20071017/index.jhtml
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Mumsee, you have your hands full. You write:
“Her classmates took it upon themselves to print chapters of the book for her at school so she could read them on the bus and such. Not all is as simple as we would wish.”
Wasn’t that just real special of those kids. Right you are, it isn’t simple.
God bless you and your husband.
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Not having read Harry Potter, I ignored this thread until now, but became curious. I’m glad I peeked in. As I said, I never read it, can’t comment on it. But I covet for our young boys, the thrill of reading the, admittedly non-Christian, books like Tom Sawyer, Huckelberry Finn, Treasure Island, “The Hardy Boys” series, etc. Later: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Lord of the Flies. I was surprised to learn that my 48 year old son never read Pilgrim’s Progress.
I was interested in the explanation of “Sex and the City”. I have heard a lot about it, (But never heard of “The Shield”.) I watched a couple of episodes (of SATC) when it came on regular cable TV. (I don’t have any premium channels.) But I couldn’t get interested in it. I got the impression that it was a “chick” series.
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I got the impression that it was a “chick” series.
It pretty much is. I may be one of about ten heterosexual men who liked it without the influence of a girlfriend or wife.
But I was drawn to the portrayal of deep and abiding friendship among the girls, I liked some of the male characters and I was a fan of the writing, which was always first-rate.
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Harry Potter’s religion? Male witches are known as warlocks, so his religion is warlockery, of course. Warlockcraft doesn’t sound right.
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Well, perhaps. If someone made a class about spiritual themes in something I had written, I wouldn’t be very happy about it. To dig them (spiritual themes, allegories, etc) out of their subtlety ruins them, methinks.
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When I read some of these posts about the Harry Potter series, I often think of this verse: